Rangers hunt for poachers of six elephants in Tsavo

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers are in hot pursuit of a poaching gang believed to have slaughtered and carted off ivory in a poaching incident on Thursday (April 24, 2014) at Dawida ranch in the periphery of Tsavo East National Park.

Six elephants have been confirmed poached and three of the elephants’ tusks chopped off. Three others, all juvenile, had their ivory intact and have been retrieved by KWS officers. All carcasses had gunshot wounds.

The area is prone to livestock herding with a number of bomas scattered near the area of the poaching incidence.

The number of the poaching gang was not immediately established but initial reports indicate that a gang of four is believed to be behind the latest poaching incident in the vast protected area.

The gang is being pursued in the adjacent areas by a strong team of ground and aerial units. A team of GSU officers and other law enforcement agencies have joined the hunt for the gang in the adjacent areas.

At 41,660 square kilometres Tsavo is the country’s largest single contiguous ecosystem and home to an estimated 11,000 elephants according to total aerial count survey of 2014. A total of 65 elephants have been poached this year.